Americans move to climate-risky areas as real estate booms
How growing battles over real estate development and flood risk are playing out in one community on the U.S. East Coast.
- Officials mull new development near downtown Wilmington, NC
- Coastal areas in U.S. to face increased sea level rise, flooding
- Americans moving toward climate-risky spots
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Part of the challenge for planners – both in the southeastern U.S. and other fast-growing parts of the country - is a lack of developable land coupled with a population boom, even with the possibility of stronger hurricanes and storms.
Between 1996 and 2017, more than 10 new residences were built in North Carolina's floodplains for every property removed through government buyout programmes aimed in part at cutting flood risk, Hino and other researchers found in a study published last year.
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Just down the river from Point Peter, the Battleship North Carolina – a World War II vessel and major tourist attraction - has launched a project known as "Living with Water" that will restore part of its parking lot to wetland habitat and elevate the rest.
At a kick-off ceremony several weeks ago, the parking lot flooded.
"It was a beautiful thing, you know," retired U.S. Navy Captain Terry Bragg, the site's executive director, quipped as he guided a tour on part of the ship.
"You could literally not walk directly from the parking lot into the visitors center because of the flooding. You had to scurry around (and) climb through the bushes - which was OK for messaging."
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